Today is National Punctuation Day, what's your favorite punctuation mark?

[pokerfan]

National Punctuation Day is a celebration of punctuation which occurs each year on September 24th. Founded by Jeff Rubin in 2004, National Punctuation Day simply promotes the correct usage of punctuation. Rubin encourages appreciators of correct punctuation and spelling to send in pictures of errors spotted in every day life.

In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences. For example, "woman, without her man, is nothing" and "woman: without her, man is nothing" have greatly different meanings, as do "eats shoots and leaves" and "eats, shoots and leaves". "King Charles walked and talked; half an hour after, his head was cut off" is more alarming than "King Charles walked and talked half an hour after his head was cut off". (For English usage, see the articles on specific punctuation marks.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Punctuation_Day

As an exercise for today punctuate the following sentence so that it makes sense:

James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher

[frogmarch]

1. The "James while John"

sentence doesn't make sense to me, regardless of how I punctuate it.

I take it that James was once called John, so the first part might be "James, while John," (i.e. James, when he was called John), but the hads are confusing. Maybe a comma after the first had, and then a comma after every two hads after that.

Here's my contribution to this thread:

This sentence is a ! premature punctuator

[pokerfan]

3. link to solution (no spoiler)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_linguistic_example_sentences

[frogmarch]

8. Thanks. Now I understand.

I can't follow it, but I get it. :silly:

[pokerfan]

9. maybe someone here can diagram it for us

because I sure as hell can't. :shrug:

[Shagbark Hickory]

2. ☺

OR in other words... "☺"

Awfuckit. I give up.

[pokerfan]

5. got it

came through in the body but not the subject field. I can't believe that I left out the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_punctuation">proposed symbol for irony and sarcasm, which is sorely need I might add:

؟

[Iggo]

4. Ampersand.

Come on, now.

[Shagbark Hickory]

6. (_|_)

What am I? 10 years old‽

You saw that correctly. ^ That's an interrobang.

[JohnnyLib2]

7. The, comma, I overuse it, a lot, says my wife.

She's happy, to correct me, frequently.

[MerryBlooms]

10. Other - I'm a punctuation abuser :-(

I need a 12 step program.
HELP ME!?:'...;-,!"`~^&_ let us not forget (*) & /|\!

Don't even get me started on effect and affect... *sigh

[Ivan Sputnik]

11. The interrobang

‽‽‽‽‽‽

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang

[Angry Dragon]

12. ?

[betharina]

13. while i like the word "ampersand"...

i love to use the ellipsis...

[dimbear]

14. Rough breathing.

Surely the sexiest of all, more of a pronunciation clue, only found in Greek as far as I know.

[ThomWV]

15. ?????????

[Tuesday Afternoon]

16. ~

*

[annabanana]

20. (me too. . Not sure what it's official function is..)

But it's purty.

[kayakjohnny]

17. I like the exclamation point.

Because it means someone's getting excited!

[pokerfan]

27. Elaine (Seinfeld) ended a relationship over an exclamation point

Jerry: You're out of your mind you know that.
Elaine: What?
Jerry: It's an exclamation point! It's a line with a dot under it.
Elaine: Well, I felt it called for one.
Jerry: It called for one. You know, I thought I've heard everything. I've never heard a relationship being affected by a punctuation.

http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheSniffingAccountant.htm

[kayakjohnny]

18. MFM should be here any minute to vote for the ... um.... you know.....

the uh....
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the period.

[pacalo]

19. This poll was tailor-made for MFM!

Where the heck can he be????
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[MiddleFingerMom]

21. I absolutely fucking DEPLORE the period and the ellipsis.

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THAT'S the REAL reason that I abuse them so much.
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I seriously like the umlaut.
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Simply because it's so fun to say.
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oom' - lao
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C'MON -- say it with me!!!
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oom' - lao.
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(on edit) Sorry... I've been composing my "biker saga".
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[pokerfan]

28. The absolute worst use of the ellipsis was actually committed by extraterrestrials

http://www.astroengine.com/2008/06/a-fractal-pattern-representation-of-pi-in-a-crop-circle

[flying rabbit]

22. ?

- the Riddler

[kentauros]

23. Tilde or "swung dash"

. . . . . .


. . . . . .

~*~

:7

[Deep13]

24. only #1 and #9 are punctuation...

and only the first one is used in English.

[pokerfan]

29. Check out the big brain on Deep13

Like the superluminal neutrino, I have no dog in this fight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation

[Deep13]

33. What fight?

:shrug:

[pokerfan]

35. just messing with you

no worry...

:hi:

[Skittles]

25. I like the semicolon; yes INDEED

[Rhiannon12866]

39. +1

(Parentheses come in very handy, too.) :hi:

[eppur_se_muova]

26. (@)(@) nt

Pardon me for being a ( * ). :D

[pokerfan]

30. Adjacent whirlpools?

I saw something like that canoeing once.

[REP]

31. As a Shaw fan, there can be only one: ;

[Major Nikon]

32. ( * ( * )

¿

[Recovered Repug]

34. The semi-colon.

Only elitists use full colons.

[BarbaRosa]

36. I Love You Period.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFpsDAL4oKE

[bigwillq]

37. !

It's so phallic! Boing! :evilgrin: :rofl:

[SwampG8r]

38. dont limit me

i want upside down punctuation like the romance languages
an upside down exclamation point or question mark says it all so well

[RedCloud]

40. Least favorite is "quote unquote" where they fail to include the quotation.